EMINENT ENVIRONMENTALIST Sunder Lal Bahuguna has gone on an indefinite fast yet again. This time the indefatigable Chipko leader has chosen Narendra Nagar town -- close to the dam site -- where he is under house arrest.
Bahuguna was arrested on April 24 after he and his supporters sat on dharna in protest against the construction of the proposed 2,400 MW Tehri Hydel Project.
This is probably his fourth indefinite fast since the early 1980s.
One of Bahuguna's pet peeves is that the dam will pollute the mythical Bhagirathi river. Another is that the dam falls in a seismically active zone.
While the first grouse is a matter for religious heads to break heads over, Bahuguna probably has a point on the second.
Work on the proposed dam could not be carried out between 1991 to 1994 because environmental clearance to it was withheld after the Uttarkashi earthquake.
The point at issue, however, is different. Will the Centre listen to Bahuguna considering that 70 per cent of Stage I of the power station has been completed? Can it afford to roll back a project after spending hundreds of crores on it?
The import of the fait accompli has perhaps sunk in among anti-dam activists. Bahuguna has climbed down from his stance in 1995 when he demanded a review of the project by an independent committee of experts.
When asked if it would be feasible for the Centre to withhold the project when 70 per cent of its first phase was through, Bahuguna's wife Vimla said, "We are demanding that the dam's height be reduced. The submergence area of the dam would be
automatically reduced and less number of the people would be uprooted."
Vimla insists reduction in the dam's height is the only solution because not enough land has been left in Uttranchal to rehabilitate 3,000 families.
